Mana protesting against better state houses

Protesters egged Prime Minister John Key’s ministerial BMW as it collected him from a state housing development in Napier this afternoon.

Mr Key was unhurt in the incident but one man was later arrested for obstruction.

The incident happened about midday in Maraenui as Mr Key concluded a visit to a new state housing development.

Earlier, about 10 protesters, some clutching Mana Party banners, greeted the prime minister and challenged him about child poverty and enabling synthetic cannabis to be sold.

They shouted: “One, two, three, four, stop the war on the poor,” and “Maraenui under attack, stand up, fight back”.

So what awful thing was the PM doing in Maraenui that Mana supporters think is an attack on the poor? Stuff has details:

Key appeared slightly miffed that protesters heckled him as he officially opened a new housing development aimed at improving the city’s poorest suburb.

Despite the crowds chanting ”Stop the war on the poor”, Key was impressed with the units saying they were nothing like the state house he grew up in, he told residents.

”The protesters, interestingly enough are protesting for us to do the very thing we’re doing. So they probably should have come in and congratulated us instead of yelled at us.”

Five families have already moved in to the Maraenui development which consists of seven two-bedroom single-storey units, centred around a central communal courtyard.

Crete Pinkham felt “lucky” to be living to be living in a warm, dry home.

”There’s no mould! I lived in mould all these years. We’d clean it up and it would grow back.”

So Mana is against low income families being moved into new warm, dry homes. No surprise I guess, as they are now aligned with the multi-millionairre who allegedly pays below minimum wage to his staff.

Over the last six years, the Government had been working to improve the run-down Housing New Zealand stock, Key said.

Large, uninsulated properties were being knocked down for smaller, warmer units.

”Cold damp homes are no place for New Zealanders. We want to put them in the six star properties we have here.”

Key admitted there was still a lot of work to do, including attracting more social housing providers into the market.

What an awful uncaring Government that is at war with the poor. Thank God we have Hone and Kim to lead us to a better place.

Manolo

srylands

The belief from the left activists that the government is far right wing, and is attacking the “poor” is simply a belief. It cannot be a reasoned deduction, because it is not supported by any facts or common sense. Of course such a belief system permeates The Standard. It becomes an echo chamber, with the echoes intensifying until everyone there really, really believes that the Government is attacking the poor in general and beneficiaries in particular (and destroying the environment and on and on).

This phenomenon amongst the Standardistas and their fellow travellers is no different to what you see in religious cults. So the rhetoric and the “beliefs” become ever more disconnected from facts and reason.

So when you tell them that we have a moderate, cautious government, managing the economy in an orthodox way, and one which has presided over an enormous welfare safety net through difficult times… well they react as an evangelist does when you say “There is no God., Get over it.”

It is the same thing with this manic hatred they have for John Key. (He is a liar, rich, an agent for the evil banks.) Of course the evidence suggests that he is one of the most liked, honest, and genuine politicians we have seen in New Zealand, and perhaps the most popular leader in the western world. (I say this dispassionately. I am not a Key sycophant).

Sir Cullen's Sidekick

seanmaitland (406 comments) says:
April 24th, 2014 at 12:15 pm
“The irony is that the government is due to spend $27 billion on social welfare and benefits this coming year – and you still get these muppets saying its not enough.

Given the crown revenue is only $64 billion a year”

Why not give us all the $64 billion plus tax anything that moves and gives more…sir give us more….This country will never move forward in another 100 years…

mjw

This is a case of the government pretending to do far more than it actually has, and hoping that the public will fall for the spin. The question is not whether there are some state houses, but whether there are enough. It has been incredibly hard to even get on the waiting list for a state house, so there has been a big hidden underclass of people that don’t even show up in the official statistics. The waiting list system has recently changed, but it remains to be seen whether that will address the needs.

Why do you think JK is so keen to go to state houses? He knows how weak National’s performance has been in this area, and how much better Labour’s policies are. What is more, Labour’s approach will increase the housing supply, which is a desperate macroeconomic need. National’s approach is to keep pushing up the price of new housing starts.

thor42

@mjw – “…the government pretending to do far more than it actually has…”

Really?

The government has now moved housing assessments into MSD. That will mean that MSD can get a complete view of what someone needs, from benefits to housing. The government has also introduced 3-yearly reviews of state housing tenancies to ensure that the best use is made of state houses.

The government has also moved to encourage other housing providers and private landlords to provide more housing.

All of that looks like a *lot* to me. It is sure as heck a LOT more than *Labour* ever did in its terms in office.

Huevon

@ srylands

Great post, wish I could uptick more than once. To understand leftism you have to see it as an ersatz religion. It also explains why it is waste of time and breath having a debate with a fanatical leftist. Just re-frame with a confident self-deprecating remark and laugh at them.

mandk

“What is more, Labour’s approach will increase the housing supply, which is a desperate macroeconomic need”

a) Labour built a few state houses, but they didn’t bother maintaining the stock and that is why National needed to prioritise addressing a $ multi-billion backlog of maintenance work.
b) The macro economy is humming. There is no desperate need.

RRM

I know a few smart well-educated people on Facebook who are somewhere between Labour and Mana politically, and it shits me no end!

I point out to them that the Key/English Govt has racked up HUGE public debt over the last 6 years, in order to maintain state spending on welfare, health and education at about the same level we’ve become accustomed to, even though there’s been the biggest economic downturn in decades that has slashed govt revenue. All they have really cut is some adult night classes that people should have been paying for themselves anyway. And a few policy analyst positions in the Ministry of Bums on Seats. Oh and you can now lose your job in the first 90 days if you turn out to be shit at the job.

All the lefty public services have kept on flowing, even though there’s not enough money coming in to pay for them. In fact a lot of the services have actually been IMPROVED!

Given all this, how can you POSSIBLY say they are a Right Wing government?

Invariably, all they come back with is “…90 day trials…!”
or“…oh they’ve cut A LOT OF THINGS…”
or“…well YOU obviously support them (you class traitor)…”
or“…I just don’t trust him [Key]…”

RRM

stigie

Srylands, it still gets me how you comment over at the Stranded with comments that are facts and not abusive, to get massive abuse back that is unwarranted. Some of those people over there are just parasites !
Cant understand why you still go there just to get abused !~

mjw

There is a huge housing shortage. That is generally recognised as a significant macroeconomic risk. And part of the corporate welfare given to Chorus was to excuse them from their agreement to connect up new housing starts to ultrafast broadband. Instead, developers now have to pay for it, feeding directly into in the cost of new builds. But I guess the gummint don’t mind that, as they already own their homes, and are happy for the price to keep going up so their wealth keeps increasing.

As for asserting the Nats are outperforming Labour – if you are still blaming the previous mob after six years, you have pretty clearly failed. The Nats have had every opportunity to sort things out. They haven’t.

griffith

I am looking at moving my lifestyle north.

Doing the sums I found a few nice mini farms @ 40 acres sans house cheap enough to make it worth my while. I have my old dad in my care so can not work or leave him unsupervised for more than a few hours. with 40 acres the potental income from relaxed stock rasing would cover the morgage on the land in full.

You can buy a nice newly refurbish ex state house for around 45/60 thousand moved onto you section within 100km of whanger

A section sans acre’s costs from 30,000. Thats a livable house for from 75,000 plus some work. @5% this would be less than $5000 per year over twenty for your own livable home….. peanuts….. and a bucket of sweat.

State housing is not really about needs or lack of supply. state housing is just our money being captured by a small minority to lazy to do for them self and to ignorant to stop breeding kids they can not support.

david

I call bullshit on mjw 1:00pm

If there really was a ” …. huge housing shortage.” you would see tent cities springing up and hordes of barefoot kids dressed in rags pestering tourists.

Almost everyone has a roof over their heads (and those that don’t have made a choice so what it boils down to is that idiots like mjw are sucked into believing whatever bullshit mantras spouted by their political idols without bothering to offer any intellectual challenge to it, a predicted requirement for more housing based on modelling of Auckland’s population growth, and an idealogical position that more people should have a right to own their accommodation rather than renting.

Message to mjw – repeating bullshit does not make it fact so unless you can provide evidence that there is a “huge shortage of houses” you are just a breath of wind.

dime

griffith

There is a shortage of green field land were buyers would like to live in Auckland.

The 1/4 acre or even todays 600m section is just not being developed in enough quantity due to zoning restrictions that really only benefit land bankers.

Land in Auckland is only worth huge amounts because the restrictions on developement and the costs and risks in developing a subdivision.

These are the direct result of poor local government housing policy that focus on “Nice to have” issues like green fields and suburb character retention not the availability of reasonable priced housing land .

mjw

David: “Message to mjw – repeating bullshit does not make it fact so unless you can provide evidence that there is a “huge shortage of houses” you are just a breath of wind.”

Oh c’mon. “Why not google New Zealand housing shortage” or read Tony Alexander, or the Salvation Army, or listen to Nick Smith on housing shortages throughout the country. Or looks at house prices, or the reports of housing bubbles. The housing shortage in Auckland alone is estimated at 30,000. Here is one piece of evidence:

leftyliberal

John Key was definitely very popular in his first term. However, in the second term he’s only slightly more popular than Helen Clark over the same time frame, with their popularity pretty much follows a very similar trend, so I think you can dial back the “Most Popular EVER” rhetoric just a fraction…

mjw

thor2 – yep, all good results. You could argue around the edges about who gets the credit, but I agree the Nats have done a good job on most of that stuff. They are good managers (at least at first), but tend to be piss poor reformers.

So time for a change, I say. We need some reform. We need consumer protection from oligopolies, we need somebody who will look after the little people, we need social housing, we need a sense of inclusion again, we need economic policies that favour consumers and taxpayers, instead of economic policies that favour shareholders.

leftyliberal

Housing NZ is doing some great work which I fully support. Knocking down older, larger, but cold and unsuitable houses and replacing them with smaller, warmer, more appropriate units is a great thing and we should be encouraging it whenever we can.

We should also be encouraging private developers to be doing a similar thing, as well as NGOs. One thing that needs to happen is making sure that constraints aren’t put into place to prevent this. e.g. the Auckland Unitary plan is overall a step forward, but still has a bunch of idiotic restrictions in place such as parking minimums, maximum heights, and minimum section sizes. Get rid of the developmental constraints both within the existing footprint of our cities, as well as making new, well-connected (via rapid transit) greenfield development outside our cities so that the housing shortage can be eliminated.

griffith

Griff is well aware of rainfall distribution historic present and projected .

Good water supply, distribution and storage with preferably a miniHydro capable running water source is part of the brief.

Being connected to the power grid is obviously not 😆

DG saying a few weeks ago he would like to move towards self supported life style made me question why I am staying in Franklin county on ten relatively valuable yet unproductive acres when I could be in north on forty + with a more productive property, off grid, less distance to town , More income from stock and a hundred thou or so in the bank.

wreck1080

mandk

mjw: “There is a huge housing shortage”

Let’s deal with some facts, rather than lefty propaganda.

1) On a very broad definition there are approximately 34,000 “homeless” people in NZ, where homeless includes staying with friends or family, living in boarding houses. This is 0.7% of the population. The number of people literally without a home is very small indeed.

2) The increase in the CPI for actual rents paid in the year to 2014Q1 was 2.0%. If there really was a huge housing shortage, rents would not be going up at this rate.

You really can’t be taken seriously if you insist on talking bollocks. You are completely ignorant and out of touch with the real issues, and this is why you and your socialist buddies will lose the election.

mjw

mandk – I am not a socialist. Anyway, I have provided the evidence, so I can’t see any point doing so again, particularly when even Nick Smith thinks there is a housing shortage. 30,000 houses needed in Auckland alone …

burt

mjw

it has been incredibly hard to even get on the waiting list for a state house

Well that’s no surprise really, we live in a country where people have a sense of entitlement to other peoples money – so once they get into a house they never move out. Now if these people ( the people in state houses) had any concern for society in general then they would themselves move out and free up the property for somebody in greater need than themselves as soon as their own circumstances improved. But no … They think they are entitled to live on the back of the rich prick tax payers – and it’s no surprise when there are parties like Labour who campaign on the policies of envy for popularity.

mjw

Northland Wahine

On my local area there are a shortage of warm state houses. And it’s also been my experience that HNZ tenancy managers were not also the best when repairs were genuinely required.

However, what I also see is that too many tenants have no idea how to treat these houses with respect. Holes in walls, smashed windows, over grown lawns that you could bale hay with. To have these cheap rentals given to you without having to work for the even the meagre deposit, it’s no wonder they treat them like crap

leftyliberal

@mandk: Another possibility for lower than anticipated rent increases would be that unmet demand is from those that already can’t afford it, and are thus living with other family? This would be consistent with a large demand for social housing.

tom hunter

Srylands hit a few important points about the Lefty hatred of John Key and pointed out the emotional basis of a lot of it. But he missed one thing:

Key was impressed with the units saying they were nothing like the state house he grew up in, he told residents.

This.

That is the key emotional point, the killer point that truly sends the Left over the edge against this guy. This is where he came from: he knows what a simple, plain and cold State house is like. He lived it and knows what he speaks of, and in plain, everyday language.

By every “rational” expectation he should be one of them but he’s not and it’s that which drives the Left so insane. I don’t think “class traitor” can even begin to cover it.

kowtow

mjw

Nicely put Tom. But it also highlights the weakness of the government. They don’t promote these kinds of rags to riches stories. Rather, they are soooooo establishment. I would love it if the Nats genuinely promoted and enabled upward social mobility. This is where I think Cunliffe had it right, that the Nats are inclined to pull the ladders up after themselves.

It seems to me that Instead of promoting personal responsibility, small government, and individual freedom, the Nats are promoting NZ Inc, invasion of privacy, more government interference, and the desire to make other peoples choices for them.

So it’s pretty hard to know what the Nats really believe in, except themselves, and their mates in business.

Komata

As it sets out Housing New Zealand’s aims and intentions, this might be of interest (especially Paragraph 2):

‘The Government has reaffirmed its expectation that the Corporation focus on our core business of managing tenancies and our property portfolio. In meeting this expectation, we must ensure that our resources are targeted towards helping those people in the greatest need, for the duration of their need.

This Statement of Intent reinforces the shift from providing a state rental property for life to access to a state rental tenancy that responds to a need for as long as that need exists. While some tenants will need a state rental property for life, there are others whose circumstances have improved enough to achieve greater housing independence. By freeing up these state rental properties, we can help more people in greatest need. Over time, the growth of the social housing sector will also assist by providing alternative housing options’. (1)

Bob R

In exchange for the privilege of state accomodation the inhabitants have an obligation to use contraception. Three monthly birth control shots are available and could be offered as part of continued use.

dirty harry

I saw the filthy trash on the news yelling abuse at Key and co..small children with signs saying” Keys a thief “..in what way ya fuckin retards..he’s just signed off new housing for ferals and they still not happy!

Fuck ’em I say..they deserve diddly squat..look after yourselves, by yourselves then assholes.

Komata …. How will their needs be detirmined? IRD Tax returns? this suggests that it is an encouragement of the black market of working for cash in the hand. Another problem is that state housing is largely geared towards the family and there is none that I am aware of for the single person who may desire to leave home and thereby free up the house for another deserving family. with the parents moving into an appropriate housing unit.

mjw

And there you have the kiwiblog commentariat at work on the poor – “obligation to use contraception”,”filthy trash”, “fuck ’em I say.” Meanwhile pensioners, road users and corporates get a free pass to ongoing government handouts.

It is sickening. That is exactly why we need a change of government, to stop the likes of Paula Bennett and Judith Collins giving comfort to those views.

kowtow

It’s just shorthand for ‘Take some responsibility for your own circumstances and stop expecting everyone else to pay for your choices”

Don’t forget. Free education is provided by us to them in order for them to have a “fair go”. If they refuse that then yes ,Fuck ’em,how many bites of the borrowed cherry do the feckless have to have.

And if they do live to 65 they get that pension you despise and never put a cent towards it. So in that regard yes, fuck ’em, if they haven’t contributed then why should they get a “handout”or any other handouts.

duggledog

Griffith @ 1.20 pm

Re moving north with your old man and your 40 acres with some stock – be careful. It’s a little bit better than it used to be but it’s still bad depending on where you are – farmers in some areas are getting fences cut and stock nicked / slaughtered on site not to mention quads pinched, people wandering around their sheds at night.

She’s bandit country, do some serious research and get the skinny from the neighbours first
Cheers

duggledog

And I meant to say –

Regarding the original post, of course the Mana supporters did what they did, they are deadbeats, always have been always will be. All they’re doing is graphically illustrating to the rest of us – you know, the 95% – that they are not deserving poor, they are c***s.

And those lovely new warm homes they have built will be utterly f***ed in 5 years, and the cost to refurbish them will be more than the initial build.

DH …Unemployment benefit for 12 weeks only..after that you are on your own( ….. could be a good idea and then people move onto a guaranteed basic income to discourage them from criminal activites

Pension..if you have been employed during your working life and have contributed via paye…pension until you die.
Not worked , you get nothing…your family will look after you…… a new form of slavery for women 🙂

DPB…one year only after first child is born..after that you get a job … That is fine if adequate and proper child care available and the GBI to look after the child and avoid criminality.

Paulus

wikiriwhis business

The reality is while Kiwibloggers whine, J Keys bosses at the Reserve bank are making it harder for the average Kiwi to claim home ownership and contrary to J Keys statement, we are going to become tenants in our own country whilst privatisation abounds thanks especially to mayors who hypocritically attend Anzac remembrances whilst minimising through privatisation strategies such as water levies.

As these strategies increase over J Keys third term he will resign for safer climes before the first political assassination occurs.

wikiriwhis business

wikiriwhis business

“I point out to them that the Key/English Govt has racked up HUGE public debt over the last 6 years, in order to maintain state spending on welfare, health and education at about the same level we’ve become accustomed to, even though there’s been the biggest economic downturn in decades that has slashed govt revenue.”

2 points. ACC have billions in coffers.

Private enterprise owes 6 billion in back taxes but these whingers on KB pick on the poor.

Your argument is hugely and desperately flawed, foul and futile

Plus National had no substance to tax takeaways cause McDonalds told them to take a hike on a long lonely freeway.